Cliques On Forums

A group of members on a forum decide to discuss stuff among themselves and don't take it kindly when someone else decides to join the discussion. Others go to the extreme. They don't respond to threads a newbie starts unless one of their own decides to post a reply. New members who notice this [that they are being ignored] won't bother to stay around. They'll head off elsewhere to find a place where their input will be appreciated.

Since such cliques are bad for any forum, how would you deal them? Or if you can prevent them from forming, how would you do it?

Cliques are natural human behavior. To some extent they are inevitable. I can't say all of them are bad although the ones you describe are negative, indeed. I guess the only way to deal with them is to purposely address them when you are posting. Ask them questions, make suggestions, comment on what they say--anything to make them converse with you. This is basically what you would do anyways on a forum except with more persistence and patience.

Like you said, if one member of the clique posts a response to someone, then the rest may join in, and then they'll all be even more motivated to help each other and the original poster and have a meaningful discussion.

However, if it's each person for himself, and no unity, then I think it's a bit less likely that really long and meaningful conversations can happen.

Like you go on a lot of those forums, and you find a lot of threads with like 10+ pages of content, and it seems that each post is its own post, with no discussion, no interaction, and then it feels like a spammy little place you're reading through.

Cliques can be bad, that's true, but I think that that depends on the type of people that make up a clique, not on the herd mentality in itself. I mean, you can have a herd of rabbits who won't bother anybody, except maybe some carrots, or you can have a herd of lions that will eat you alive. It's not the herd/clique that's bad, but its members can be... haha

Like you said, if one member of the clique posts a response to someone, then the rest may join in, and then they'll all be even more motivated to help each other and the original poster and have a meaningful discussion.

However, if it's each person for himself, and no unity, then I think it's a bit less likely that really long and meaningful conversations can happen.

Like you go on a lot of those forums, and you find a lot of threads with like 10+ pages of content, and it seems that each post is its own post, with no discussion, no interaction, and then it feels like a spammy little place you're reading through.

Cliques can be bad, that's true, but I think that that depends on the type of people that make up a clique, not on the herd mentality in itself. I mean, you can have a herd of rabbits who won't bother anybody, except maybe some carrots, or you can have a herd of lions that will eat you alive. It's not the herd/clique that's bad, but its members can be... haha

Click to expand...

That's a good observation. Sometimes there are threads with each post only relating to the individual poster. Thus, there's no engaging conversation. This isn't so much in relation to cliques as it is to each member. Cliques concern more with almost bully like behavior. 'Bully' may not be precisely the word I want to use, but I think I may have made my point across. If otherwise, let me know so I can clarify

A lot of forums will have a newbie section where newbie topics can be discussed. Every forum is different, in terms of the topic of the forum, but as an example, I frequent many marketing forums and know that people who have been on the forum for years don't always want to answer questions from newbies, because it irritates them, this isn't always the case though. I find that a lot of the time someone who is new to a forum will ask a question without using the "search function" of the forum to find the answer for themselves. This frustrates a lot of the older members, which is why a newbie section can be a good idea.

Forum cliques don't bother me that much, although I notice their existence every now and then. In more mature forums, I hardly notice cliques. If you go to forums riddled by teenagers, however, it's natural to see them form a sort of bandwagon. These should not be taken too seriously. You're in the forum because there's information you'd like to share or extract. More than the cliques, it's the forum itself, what it stands for and the key information it contains are more important.

Depends on the forum. Usually developer forums/newsgroups are more concerned about ideas over people. On more social type forums/chatboards people will form cliques. I have never ran a forum, but in some cases the admin jumps in to shake things up and stop the newbies from getting picked on. Some forums have a newbie section where you are not allowed to pick on them.

The situation seems to be another type of bullying. It would be difficult to ban bullies from your forum, cause it would seem like you opposed free speech. Anyhow, a forum would have to massively popular to gain such bullies anyhow, and most haven't reached that goal.

I suppose if things got too out of hand, then you could just ban or punish them.

I've never seen that before on a forum I've used. It seems odd that people won't want to think for themselves. I mean who cares if that person is new, just post on their topic if you like it. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you were there at one point too. I know that it's human nature to be like that, but I just think that it's so stupid. Who cares who posts what, you're on a forum to talk not be like that.

In my experience, math, music lesson, and political forums are full of bullies. The music and math bullies are on the prowl looking for people who make mistakes, and then proceed to dehumanize them. It's a no-brainer to understand why political forums are full of viscous posters.

Useful Searches

Forums

About Us

Web Directory Forum is a project of the Web Directory Reviews Org site and WDR Directory of Directories. While the primary function of this forum is to support and discuss the web directory industry, topics relating to web design and site management, hosting, search engine optimization, and other webmaster issues are also appropriate.